Dad's 36th Birthday

Just a few days after we returned from our cruise, it was time to celebrate Dad's birthday!  And we certainly know of no other way to celebrate his special day than meatloaf for dinner and pumpkin pie for dessert.  Who are we to mess with tradition?

The boys helped me pick out some fun decorations for our little family party, and these superhero masks were the first thing to go in our cart.  Little did we realize that because we bought them at Toys R Us, they fit super-tight!  Dad managed to get one over his melon so I could take a picture before his circulation was cut off completely :)

The boys and I were very excited to give Dad his birthday present: gift cards to the Apple store so he could finally get his new iPad!  I let Liam and Joergen determine the dollar amount of their gift, and they selected $54.13 (which they begrudgingly rounded to $55). 

Happy birthday to the best husband and dad, not to mention the best sports opponent, monster, villain, hide-and-seeker, and chaser (or whatever other role du jour the boys have assigned you) - we love you!!

While Mom and Dad are Away...

While we were off having adventures on the high seas, Liam and Joergen were home having some pretty cool adventures of their own.  We are forever grateful to Grandma for holding down the fort in our absence and for taking such wonderful care of the boys!  Now as our luck had it, Joergen's name was randomly drawn at school the day before we left to be the weekend caregiver of the class mascot, Pip.  In addition to taking care of Pip, the lucky winner must also take photos and journal about all of Pip's fabulous adventures over the weekend.  No pressure, Grandma!  

Well, I know it's not a competition or anything-- but if it were, Pip's weekend with Joergen totally would have won.  

Pip, Joergen, and Liam aboard the Strasburg Railroad!

A beautiful fall day at Valley Forge National Park

What could be cooler than a cannon?

Dipping into the dress-up bin

Playing some ball (in rain boots, of course)

The boys were also so lucky to have Nana come visit for a day, too, so they had both of their grandmothers at once!  Their special project of the day was to make their teal pumpkin for food allergy awareness, which lets kids know that our home had safe non-food options for Halloween treats.

All dressed up in their Sunday best

The boys had so much fun that week that I'm pretty sure they hardly had time to miss us!

Getaway Cruise to the Caribbean!

Daddy and I did the unthinkable.  We went on a 5-night Disney Cruise to the Western Caribbean... and we didn't take the kids.  *GASP*

We adore our kids, but let's be real: sometimes parents just gotta be husband and wife, ya know?  We realized that other than a weekend here or there, we hadn't been away for a real vacation, just the two of us, since our honeymoon almost 11 years ago.  It was time!  So we packed our bags, said goodbye to the boys (who scored a week with Grandma-- more on that later!), and flew to Florida to hop on the Disney Wonder in Miami.

We got there so early that we were among the first people on the ship!  Once on board, we wasted no time whatsoever changing into bathing suits and snagging a spot by the adults-only pool.  Oh, and having a celebratory drink.

The Wonder was almost identical to the Magic, which we sailed on a couple of years ago on our 2-day "cruise to nowhere," but we loved exploring regardless-- and especially discovering all the ways they decked out the ship for Halloween!

The haunted tree on the day we embarked...

... and on the day we disembarked!

Around 1:30 or so in the afternoon, our room was ready.  We loved being back in a room with a veranda!

Cocktail hour: room service wine-and-cheese plates with our BYOB cabernet :)

In short, our getaway week was fabulous.  We relaxed...

Hey, look!  It's Cuba!

... and slept in late (for us, anyway)

We took a martini class...

... and got all dolled up for dinner.

Our "dressy" night

ARRGH!  Pirate night, matey!

We had the late dinner seating and the best table-mates!  There were four couples in our happy little group, although we were perhaps the only four couples without children on board.  Disney doesn't miss a detail, that's for sure.

As opposed to our last cruise experience, this one had actual ports-of-call, with stops in both Grand Cayman and Cozumel, Mexico.  Our favorite was definitely Cayman!  It is a tender port, so we got some awesome views of both the island and our ship.

We signed up for a snorkeling excursion ahead of time, and our only regret was that we didn't sign up for the same thing in Cozumel too!  I hadn't been snorkeling since 1996 (!) and it was Anthony's first time all together.  We had such an amazing time exploring the crystal-blue Caribbean and got to see all kinds of cool fish, both big and small.  The big fish, by the way, looked an awful lot like sharks-- and to say we were relieved to find out it was actually a tarpon is a huge understatement!

After snorkeling, we wandered around Grand Cayman for a while.  Most places were closed with it being a Sunday and all, but we did get some awesome views of our ship-- and even found a tourist trap with free WiFi to check in on the kids!

Our second port was Cozumel.  Our excursion here included a trip to the San Gervasio Mayan Ruins...

These guys could be found all over the site.  Yikes!

The history there was really interesting! It was pretty  muggy and buggy, though, so we weren't exactly disappointed when that part of the excursion ended.

...followed by some time relaxing at Playa Mia.  It was beautiful and very fun!

When we got back, we decided to stop for a *little* drink before getting back on the ship :)

We loved getting such up-close views of the ship on our ports-of-call days, and really loved all the Disney details!

Our last day on the ship was a wash... literally.  It rained, and rained hard, pretty much the entire day.  It got bad enough at one point that they had to close the decks to keep everyone safe inside.  Believe it or not, though, that ended up being one of our favorite days on board.  With everyone forced inside, all of the indoor activities suddenly got a lot more popular!  Table 26 slowly but surely found each other throughout the day and turned into some fierce competition (or so we'd like to think) in many games of trivia throughout the ship.  It was a blast.

That evening, we celebrated Anthony's birthday with a special dinner at Palo.  It definitely did not disappoint!  The service and the food were both incredible.

Since we had an earlier Palo reservation and it was our last night on board, we decided to join our table-mates at least for conversation (and ahem, more dessert) during our usual late seating.  This also gave us a chance to see our fabulous wait-staff one last time.  Oka and Cristina were the best!

By early the next morning, we were back in Miami to start our trip back home.  We had such an incredible week at sea, but were also feeling ready to get back home to the boys.  We missed them!  And who knows?  Maybe next time we'll actually bring them along!

Lieberfamily Reunion

After 8 (9?) years and probably twice as many additions, the Lieberman family finally reunited!

The newest generation- ages 18 months to 22 years

Thanks to Facebook and my cousin Greg, about 2/3 of the gang across three generations miraculously gathered on a cool October Saturday at the Barefield Recreaction Complex in Pottsville for a day of fun, with my Nana and Pop-Pop no doubt watching over us from heaven.  Greg couldn't have picked a more perfect venue, with a large covered picnic/grill area to house all the food without which no Lieber-family reunion would be complete:

The covered area also included a few TVs for watching all the college football of the day, including one very exciting ND game.  It was so much fun to cheer on the Irish with my uncles and cousins, and especially to watch them beat Stanford in the last seconds of the game!

The venue also had a giant fire pit, which proved to be clutch as the day went on and the temperatures outside continued to drop.

It took a while to get that fire going, but once we were in business, it was s'mores all around!

Kaier and Gwen having a snack

The best part though was the athletic fields-- football, horseshoes, volleyball, and basketball!  I have never seen so many kids across so many ages run around outside for so many hours-- without a single soul stopping to pick up a phone or a tablet.  It was awesome.

Joergen and Colin catching up on the astroturf :)

And with all the kids occupied on their own, the adults actually got to have real conversations!  

Nana with her sister Anne and brother John

It was such a fantastic day, and we all agreed this needs to happen once a year!  (Seriously guys, let's make it happen!)

We stayed over night that night at Aunt Anne and Uncle Jim's house in Barnesville, which was about 20 minutes away and saved us from the 2-hour drive home.  We had never been to their "new" house (um, they moved in 2003...) and were so grateful for their amazing hospitality.  Homemade strawberry shortcake, and a bottomless glass of Bailey's?  OK!

On Sunday morning after church and brunch at the golf club, we decided to drive through Mahanoy City where Nana grew up and I spent so much of my own childhood.  It had been years since I'd been through town!  I had heard that they were tearing down the old Kaier's Brewery to build a community park, and even though the brewery had closed well before I was even born, I wanted to at least see it one more time.  So much of our family history is owed to Kaier's, and I think the park will be the perfect way to use this bittersweet place.